Main menu

Tag Archives: Bill

Post navigation

This article contains SPOILERS. If you haven’t read the issue yet, proceed at your own risk!

Taylor: Sticking the landing is the hardest part of any endeavor. It doesn’t matter if it’s landing a plane, finishing a gymnastics routine, or writing the end to a story: it’s just plain difficult. In all of these examples, sticking the landing is hard because they require one final flourish of skill before the tension in the situation is resolved once and for all. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles/Ghostbusters II has to stick its landing in this, the final fifth issue. It does so successfully but in a way that is overshadowed by the brilliance that came before it. Continue reading →

Today, Taylor and Michael are discussing Belfry, originally released February 22nd, 2017. As always, this article contains SPOILERS.

Taylor: One of my favorite bits of trivia about the very first Alien movie is that the titular monster doesn’t appear in its full form until an hour into the movie. Even after this first appearance, the alien is on screen for less than four minutes total. This trivia caught me by surprise when I first heard it. After all, the alien scared the hell out of me and has become a symbol of sci-fi horror. But the dread the xenomorph inspires is precisely because of how unseen it is. Not knowing where, or exactly what a xenomorph is, is exactly why it’s so terrifying. These thoughts on Alien and what makes a good horror story were in my mind after reading Gabriel Hardman’s Belfry both because of its triumphs and in shortcomings. Continue reading →

Today, Drew and Patrick are discussing Mind MGMT 22, originally released May 28th, 2014.

Drew: It would be foolish to attempt to define Art in a write-up of a single issue of a comic book (even if that issue happens to dance on the edge of that definition), but I do think we can easily define “art,” the colloquial term we use to describe any care put into the effect of something that could otherwise be “artless.” It’s what makes a story compelling, a building inviting, a meal delicious. With that definition, I’d like to posit magic as the purest form of “art” — it’s all about the effect. We’d never walk away from a magic act questioning it’s meaning, but we’re often impressed by the execution. Intriguingly, those effects are controlled in much the same way they are in other artforms — by setting up and defying our expectations — the only difference being that other art uses these effects as means to an end — a way of eliciting specific responses from the audience — whereas magic views those effects as an end unto themselves. It’s an intriguing duality, and as usual for Mind MGMT, Matt Kindt pitches this issue along the continuum between the two. Continue reading →